Specially Written for Vikalp Sangam

For hope to be meaningful and powerful it must be grounded in agency – the ability to enact change. This change begins with oneself and extends to the wider world through movements. This requires ecological and social politics, understood as the relationships between humans, the relationship between humans and the more-than human world, and the relationships of power determining our economic, social and political systems.

How many of us, young people, have this agency today in modern India to question our governments against all the environmentally destructive policies, communalism, and decisive politics? or others that make decisions for us, such as our families, communities, educational institutions? How many of us have the agency to change this without being frightened of the repercussions on our liberty? How many of us are questioning the serious unemployment and underemployment, and hunger in India? and trying to understand the roots of (rather than accepting simplistic explanation about).

The worst effects of environment destruction and climate change will be suffered (and are suffered by those on the margins) by the future generations and in those the most marginalised communities. The air and water pollution, forest depletion, land degradation, species loss, and displacement of communities makes the future generations extremely vulnerable, reduces their ability to lead a dignified life, and threatens their ability to exercise their fundamental rights. The future generations have the right to life and the right to live on a healthy planet which mandates the government to take actions that protect and conserve the environment which we inhabit. Instead what we see is that our government is promoting ease of doing business at the cost of ecological destruction and threatening the lives of present as well as future generations. This injustice that the government is bestowing on multiple generations is already threatening the lives of millions of young people as well as those who are yet to be born. 

Another critical element of youth’s present concern is livelihoods and employment. As one of the world’s most populous nations with a diverse workforce, fluctuations in the unemployment rate have far-reaching implications. According to the recent report, unemployment among youth aged between 20 and 30 has registered an increase in the Oct-Dec quarter of 2023. Unemployment in the youth aged between 20 and 24 increased to 44.49 percent in December. Similarly, unemployment among the youth aged between 25 and 29 increased to 14.33 percent in the Oct-Dec quarter of 2023, which stood at 13.35 percent in the last quarter. Several of the unemployed youth including educated labour force who don’t have the needed  skills in the educated labour force. Though the recent trends show decline in the overall unemployment rates, however, most young people in India are working in very precarious situations, environmentally destructive jobs, with no adequate social and economic benefits. Underemployment and low wages in the informal urban workforce is a big issue along with poor quality of urban infrastructure and services. Several groups have argued for the National Urban Employment Guarantee Act which provides a statutory right to employment at specified wage rates and number of days.

Manifesto for a Just, Equitable and Sustainable India, 2024’, released on 18th December in New Delhi building from peoples’ grounded work, through the Vikalp Sangam process is demanding that in these times of climate change and precarious situations, we need to build livelihoods that combine traditional and modern skills and knowledge. The highest priority in all plans and budgets to the two biggest livelihood sectors of agriculture (including farming, pastoralism, fisheries, and forestry) and crafts manufacturing; this should include reserving all products and services that can be made or generated at micro, small and medium- scale by promoting local, community-based, and decentralised production, through measures such as the facilitation of democratically run producer collectives (cooperatives, companies, unions, etc). Especially to cater to young people of this generation, we need to promote livelihoods and employment that are ecologically sensitive, sustainable, and dignified, building on the vision of ‘green jobs’ and just transitions (including necessary reskilling and upskilling for those employed in ‘dirty’ jobs) that has been promoted by the United Nations. Also jobs in modern sectors, like homestays/community run ecotourism, open source software, solidarity economy run cafes/shops/enterprises etc. In several parts of the Himalayas, communities are combining nature and culture as an experience for tourists and trying to build sustainable livelihoods. Pawalgarh Prakriti Prahari (PPP, a local youth group in Uttarakhand is leading an innovative example of  community-based tourism in India. Not too far from Pawalgarh, Himalayan Ark Homestay programme in Munsiyari is solely run by the women and encourages guests to see the region from the eyes of the locals, and in return, they were treated like guests, not clients. For the last few years, this has given incentive for young men and women in the village to stay back, connect to their local biodiversity and culture and also sustain themselves economically. In Spiti valley of Himachal Pradesh, a small village, Kibber along with others has been running homestays for the last 15 years  with the intention of combining nature and culture as a different experience. This has been a good source for revenue and alternative income generation for families, and in a season in which there is not much agricultural or animal husbandry activity. Importantly, many young people have stayed back in the village because of these opportunities, rather than migrate out in search of jobs.

According to the UNESCO report, in a country where almost half the population is under 25, young people are paying a disproportionately heavy price during the health crisis. The report, titled ‘Mental State of India: Internet-enabled Youth’, notes that the mental health of young people in the country has deteriorated during the pandemic. It showed that 51 per cent of youth were distressed or struggling in 2023. This is coupled with ecological crises and climate change that we are facing today. Changing climate, heat waves, increased air/water pollution, contaminated food, makes young people extremely vulnerable to dignified living and health conditions. This is not delinked from the livelihoods and environment crises. Precarious, polluted working conditions put the workers in health hazardous situations. 

The VS manifesto is building from peoples’ grounded work, is asking for securing dignified livelihoods, protecting human rights, conserving the environment and wildlife, democratising all spaces of decision-making, withdrawing authoritarian laws and measures, providing meaningful opportunities for education and health, enabling local self-reliance for basic needs like water, food and energy, and other such actions. These are built on numerous examples across India that already offer a way of crises we face today. In Korchi, Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra communities are securing their community forests rights and generating localised livelihoods by protecting their biodiversity. Communities in rural Andhra Pradesh are running community-led conservation started over 20 years ago named Kalpavalli Community Conservation Area, an inspiring initiative of regeneration and coexistence. Deccan Development Society (DDS) is run by around 5,000 Dalit women forming autonomous communities for issues like food production and sovereignty, seed conservation and sharing, natural resource governance, fair markets, and so on. In Kunariya Panchayat of Gujarat, the village is re-inventing and strengthening  the panchayat system by questioning patriarchy, conserving biodiversity, centering youth and re-imagining self-governance. These numerous example groups represent hundreds of initiatives working on ecological food production, decentralised water harvesting and management, community-based energy production, dignified housing and settlements, meaningful education and health security, locally empowered decision-making, and resistance against destructive projects.

The current growth-oriented model of development has exacerbated ecological destruction, amplified inequalities of caste, class, gender, religion etc and have left most of humanity behind. Young India’s hope lies in exactly the opposite-the efforts towards protecting the environment, dignified and secured livelihoods, and decent health conditions, but will our leaders listen? I started with that ‘for hope to be meaningful and powerful it must be grounded in agency’- young India needs to nurture this agency. Learn from our social movements in the past and adapt to the newer world but organise, resist, ask questions and work on the ground. We need to create solidarity spaces to stand  with each other in times of repression like we always have had but need to do it a lot more. 

Contact the author.